


The 99th Hunger Games

by Siren17



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Careers (Hunger Games), Careers Have Issues, Fan Characters, First story, Friendship, Help, Hunger Games, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, OC characters, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 01:31:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19074742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siren17/pseuds/Siren17
Summary: What if Katniss had never survived the Hunger Games? This story follows a girl called Josie as she navigates through the violence and treachery of the 99th Hunger Games





	1. The Reaping

**Author's Note:**

> This story has only my ocs in it. sorry

I sit on a stool by the window watching the sunrise over the glistening blue sea. Who could imagine that a sight so beautiful could come on such a grim occasion.  
The reaping.  
The morning air has its usual chill to it but yet my hands are sweating bullets. I had made it through my others safely but who was to say that this year would be different, my name had been entered seven times this year for tesserae as well as 4 times for being fifteen.

“Josephine!” My mum calls from her room, “Come here!” I jump up, temporarily shoving my feelings aside and jog into her room.  
“Yeah” I ask, my eyes making their way to a chair next to her bed. A pale blue dress is draped over the back.  
“I picked out this for you today” she smiles, “and I ran a bath, quickly go get clean.”  
I nod and hastily moved to the bathroom, washing all the salt and sand out of my blonde hair and trimming my nails. I slip on the dress and brush all the knots out of my hair. I look in the mirror. I can barely recognise myself.  
“You look nice” my Dad smiles as he walked through the door, I turn to him with a pleading look in my eyes.  
“Why?”  
“Excuse me?”  
“I don’t want to look nice, not for the reaping.”  
“Oh” he sighs and hugged me “You’ll be fine, i’m sure of it.” I wipe away a tear and clench my fists.  
“Yeah I know.” I look at the ground and then back up at my dad, forcing a smile, he returns it, turning swiftly on his heel and exiting the room.

I walk over to the window and look back out at the sea, the sun is fully out now and the sea shines and glimmers, what if I could just jump into it, swim away and never come back.  
“Come on Josie” my mum smiles, “the reaping should be starting soon, we should get going” My heart begins to beat hard in my chest as I take my mums hand and we walk out the door. 

The town is beginning to buzz with people. young boys and girls are gathered in the main square. I line up behind a peacekeeper and check myself in, then join the other district four females in a huge crowd.  
I wait for what seemed like eternity when finally the man from the capitol that runs the reaping each year in district four comes to the stage, he runs through all the usual stuff like the video, the speech from the mayor, and finally he approaches the glass bowl with the girls names in it.

My legs started to shake, my whole life could be in the hands of one action, one movement, that predicts my future. The man, Vincenzo Lucifer, slowly folded his fingers over a tiny slip of paper, right at the bottom, I hold my breath as he walks back to the microphone. The whole square is in complete silence, the only thing i can hear is Vincenzo’s hard breathing, with his mouth too close to the microphone. He brings the paper up to his eyeline and slowly unfolds it, this moment seems to take forever.The slight pause while he processes what the paper says feels like eternity.

He inhales a huge breath and looks up at the crowd, I never noticed his eyes and how piercing they are, an almost yellow green, so bright they might glow in the dark.   
“Josephine Rolfe” he smiles.  
My throat dries out, girls all around me turn to look, I feel the prick of tears as a peacekeeper takes my arms and gruffly shoves me along the path to the podium.  
“Ah yes” Vincenzo says “come here darling.”  
I continue to walk, looking around frantically, praying someone will volunteer for me, but the crowd remains silent. I climb the stairs and look out onto the crowd, finding my parents but they won’t look at me, only at the ground.  
Vincenzo walks over to the other glass bowl and draws out a name, he walks back to the microphone and reads out some kid who i’ve never heard of before, he has red hair and blue eyes similar to mine and he’s crying, I feel a stab of emotion for him, “he’s only twelve and he’s going to die” I think.  
“Can we have a round of applause for this year tributes!” Vincenzo cries, a quiet series of claps comes from the audience, Vincenzo beams and ushers us inside. 

I sit in a room, waiting. I can hear the muffled cries coming from the room next to me, I can tell its the other tribute and his family. I wait for my parents to come, I wait and wait and still they don’t.  
A peacekeeper barges in and grabs my arm, “time to go” he tells me.  
“No!” I say “my parents didn't come! You don’t understand!” he clamps his hand over my mouth and marches me out as I begin to sob, I barely even remember the ride to the train and getting on, all I remember is getting on and running straight to my room.


	2. Welcome to the Capitol

Hours later I emerge to see Vincenzo, the boy whose name I learnt was Carl and Jeremy (our mentor) all staring at the TV.  
“Josephine -” Vincenzo begins.  
“It’s Josie” I retort, not a hint of respect in my voice.  
“Josie then, you're just in time to see the rest of the reapings.”  
I sit down and silently watched the reaping, as usual district ones tributes were volunteers, a girl with brown hair and blue eyes called Sienna hadn’t wasted any time, she had volunteered as soon as the reaping started. District two offered up two more volunteers including a girl with long black hair and dark eyes. District three gave two more and so it continued, district after district giving children to be stolen and put in an arena to fight to the death.   
“Are you hungry?” Carl timidly asks “I had dinner, the foods really good.”  
“I believe I have lost my appetite” I growl and storm off to my room, feeling repulsed that something as normal as dinner could exist at this awful time.  
Hours pass and I don’t want to admit that I'm hungry. Yet the ache in my stomach grows and grows until finally the scent of cooking turkey and roast vegetables gets the better of me. After living on a diet of seafood these different dishes are bordering on irresistible. I skulk out of my room and join the others at the table, silently I begin to eat, ignoring the stares I am receiving.   
“Decided to join us then?” Jeremy sighs “You had us worried.”  
I grunted and kept on eating, intending to finish as quickly as possible and go back to my room.  
“Josie, we’ll be at the capitol by morning, you could do to know a bit before that happens.”  
I turn away and don't respond, I don’t want to talk to any of these people.  
“Come on!” comes Carl's voice “it’s not that hard to listen.”  
“Fine” I huff, turning to look at Jeremy “anything you want to tell me, do it now.”  
“Great” he sighs “when we get to the capitol try to appear friendly, you want to get people to like you so you can get sponsors. Try to make alliances but don’t trust anyone, also -”  
I wave my hand in dismissal and shove my chair aside, getting up to walk to my room Vincenzo calls after me.  
“Darling please listen!”  
“Why Vincenzo?” I hiss over my shoulder “Why take advice when I know I'm going to die anyway.”  
Then I storm off.

The night passed slowly, whenever I drift off to sleep I wake up again and in horror realise it wasn’t all a bad dream, I cry, I pray and beg any type of higher being to let me wake up back home in district four, with my parents at my side soothing me back to sleep, assuring me that all was well.

I wake up with a start, confused and weary I look around. Suddenly yesterday comes flooding back to me, the reaping, my parents and the other district four team. I swing my legs out the bed, letting my bare soles touch the cold floor. Hastily I rush around, getting dressed and brushing my hair, I keep on thinking about Jeremys advice from yesterday “you want to get people to like you.” I look in the mirror and shudder at my clothes, i’m wearing the same dress that I wore for the reaping and it has a huge stain down the front.

I leave my room and go to the lounge, staring out the window I watch as we draw closer and closer to the capitol, to my fate.  
Carl walks into the room and offers me a weak smile, I turn away, catching glimpses of tall buildings on the horizon. My heart begins to beat and small beads of sweat form on my forehead.  
“We’re here” Vincenzo says as he walks in beside Jeremy, “impressed?”  
I give a small nod and turn back to the window, we’re pulling into a station, packed with people all jumping up and down and screaming.  
“Wave” Jeremy commands, for some reason I feel it’s the right thing to do, so I give my nicest smile and wave out the window. The crowd screams even louder and becomes a blur of colour.

Then Carl and I are escorted to our stylists. My stylist team wash and wax me, plucking my eyebrows and brushing every last knot out of my hair, I slip on a bathrobe and get taken to a room where a young woman is sitting, she has pink hair in a clean bob, purple eye and lip makeup and wears a plain black dress, she doesn’t smile as I walk in, only stares.  
“My name is Laura Intinio, I'm not your friend, only here to make to you look pretty” She looks me up and down “If that’s even possible” she finishes.  
“Nice to meet you too” I mutter as I sit down on her table.  
“What district are you? Four?”  
“Yes.” I reply, I’ve already decided I don’t like this woman. She claps her hands together, “Easy!” she says, I have just the dress.

“I feel ridiculous” I say, brow furrowed as I spin around, taking in this… thing that she has dressed me in. The skirt flows and billows in the breeze, it is made of multiple layers of aqua lace and the occasional rhinestone. The top fades from aqua to pastel purple, it seems like it doesn’t end, only fades into my skin. My hair has been lightly curled and I have blue lip and eye makeup, lathered in white glitter. I also have blue strappy heels on, so high I wobble around every time I take a step.  
“Stop being so dramatic” she sighs as she begins to file her nails “I made you look fabulous.”  
“I don’t feel fabulous” I huff “I don’t even want to be here!” In a split second she is up, hand clasped around my mouth and looking around the room, terrified.  
“Josephine you mustn’t say such things!” she hisses “who knows who can be listening!” With all my strength I pry her fingers off me.  
“What, don’t speak the truth?” she raises her hand and brings it hard across my face. I roar and drag my manicured fingers across hers, she screams and I scream back “I hate this place! I hate this place!” She grabs me and shoves me against the wall, I spit in her face and her makeup runs a little.  
“In all my years I have never met anyone like you!” she yells “now little brat, pull yourself together and get out there!”  
At first I don’t want to, I want to keep on fighting her but it slowly dawns on me that it’s no use, that one way or another I'm going into the games, I'm going to die.  
I go limp and crumple to the floor, tears streak my cheeks and I begin to sob.  
“Josephine…” she begins but goes silent, I curl up and lie there.  
“I want to go home.” I whisper “please Laura, take me home.”  
Laura reaches down and takes my hands, pulling me   
up I see the scratches I have made on her face and feel a wave of guilt.  
“You know I can’t do that Josephine” she tells me “but I'll tell you what, if you go into the games and treat the other tributes like you just treated me, you just might.”

Laura cleans up my makeup and sews on some more rhinestones because a few fell off, she tidies my hair and puts a small clip with a dolphin on it in.  
“Thank you” I say to her, gathering more and more affection for her by the minute.  
“Ready!” she claps “get out there and slay I allow a small laugh and turn to the door. Laura walks me out and I'm escorted to the main square where the parade will take place, I see Carl off in the distance and wave to him, he looks surprised but then smiles and waves back. Now I can see the other tributes in the flesh, a girl from district ten catches my eye, she has a kind smile and brown curly hair, she’s dressed in a grass green dress that comes to just above her knees and knee high strappy boots.  
“Four” someone says, I turn to see a girl with big blue eyes, shoulder length dirty brown hair and lots of moles standing there, I immediately recognise her as the district seven female, she looks only a little older than I, perhaps only a year.  
“Seven” I reply, raising an eyebrow. She looks me up and down, smiles and walks off, her brown dress dragging behind her.  
“And now ladies and gentleman of the capitol, introducing this years tributes!” Everyone scrambles to there carriages, I climb into mine being careful not to snag the fabric and quickly pat my hair down, Carl looks as if he might wet himself. I swallow a laugh and instead focus on looking straight ahead and smiling.  
The carriages jolt into action, I notice the district one tribute Sienna who is dressed from head to toe in glittering jewels grinning as the announcer yells out “district one!”  
I listen to the crowd go ballistic, screaming, shouting, whooping, it’s as if they’re happy about this.  
“District four!” the announcer yells, my heart beats fast and Carl lets out a small squeal. I clench my fists and grit my teeth, adrenaline pumps through me and I try my very hardest not to throw up.  
The capitol screams even louder, I look around at the ecstatic citizens, one man in the back with a fluro green afro is on the verge of vomiting.  
Finally the carriage comes to a slow and we disembark. Carl is shaking but looks happy, the other carriages come after us and I watch as finally the district twelve one pulls up, a girl with jet black hair that flows behind her steps out, I think her name is Jenene or Jade or something.  
The girl catches my eye, gives a polite wave and starts talking to someone from district two.  
“You really killed it out there” Jeremy’s voice comes. I look over my shoulder and give a reluctant smile.  
“Yeah it went better than expected.” I reply to him, he laughs   
“I met your stylist, she seems to have taken quite a liking to you.”  
“Yeah she’s nice.”  
“Good, we should leave” he tells me, gesturing over his shoulder I see Sienna staring at me, her hand twitching as if she’s holding an invisible sword.  
“I want to talk to her” I say, “she seems interesting.”  
“Do you want to die?” he hisses, “we should go, now!” Jeremy says gesturing.  
“Why not?” I ask looking at him.  
“Don’t trust one or three, remember that.” Jeremy says, he takes my hand and I let him walk me over to the elevator. Carl follows us, we enter and press the button marked “four” then wait for the doors to close.  
“Hold the door” comes a foreign voice, I hear feet beating on the ground and to Jeremys horror, Sienna walks in.

The doors close and we stand there awkwardly as we slowly ascend. I can’t help but admire Sienna’s outfit. The sparking diamonds, rubies and sapphires glimmer just like the morning light on the sea back in four. I want to compliment her but Jeremy’s strong grip on my shoulder tells me otherwise. The doors open for flour one and Sienna smiles menacingly.  
“I hope your ready for the arena four” she snickers “perhaps just save yourself the effort and slit your throat early.”  
I choke and step back, Siena steps out of the elevator and walks off without looking back. I look up at Jeremy whose eyes are wide and mouth open, Carl looks like he might wet himself again. The doors slide shut and we stand in silence, clearly dumbfounded by what just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment pairings please


	3. A Nervous Wreck

A nervous wreck

The following day training begins, I get up early and dress in standard jeans and shirt. Carl joins me in the elevator as we make our way down to ground floor.

“Welcome this year’s tributes to the annual hunger games, in a week 23 of you will be dead and one victor alone shall remain, this is decided by skill, endurance and survival skills, let’s just hope some of you possess these.”  
The woman dismisses us and I watch the careers run straight over to the weapons station, I, on the other hand, decide to meander of to the camouflage station. I pick up some mud and begin to spread it over my arm. When I notice someone else has joined me. In my head I begin to chant “please not Sienna, please not Sienna.”  
I look up, it’s not Sienna. Neive, the girl from seven Sits down next to me and picks up a brush. I watch as she carefully strokes some red paint on herself.  
Her head snaps up and looks at me, I quickly look back at my own arm and pretend to be concentrating but it’s too late.  
“Morning four” she smiles “how are you?”  
“Great” I mutter.  
“And how are you enjoying the capitol?”  
I look up “oh it’s just wonderful, we only get seafood in four, and barely any, so it’s amazing tasting all these new things!” I stop myself from getting too excited and look back down at my arm.   
“I feel you, in seven the food was bland, huge iced cakes and exotic gelatos were completely out of the question.” she continues to stroke her arm, creating amazing flowers and roses, covering her arm in colours and patterns. 

After a few minutes slopping mud over my arm, i move on to the compulsory activities, which includes a set of sweaty monkey bars that seem too easy to fall off, and some knife and spear throwing. I see the girl from twelve, she is on the parkour station, and jumps and runs very fast, i can only imagine how she will beat almost everyone at the cornucopia. I catch myself staring, and decide to go to the poisonous plant section, where neive stands pressing like crazy, getting everything right. When she’s finished i approach her,  
“Wow your really good at that” i point to the station  
“Thanks” she nods her head looking down at her feet. We stand there contemplating what to say and ask, that wouldn’t bring up bad vibes.

Our awkward silence gets interrupted by the instructor woman blowing a horn indicating us it’s lunch time. Carl sits next to me, along with Neive and her district partner, a tall boy with pitch black hair, he looks about sixteen years old, lukas. We all stuff our food in, tired from our training. When we’re finished carl turns to lukas and puts a big smile on his face,  
“Do you have a favorite activity in the training space?” even though carl has a secret talent for small talk lukas keeps his head down and merely shrugs. Neive looks at carl in an apologetic manner, and carl shakes his head indicating not to worry. I make a mental decision not to trust lukas.

A week passes and soon the training has drawn to a close, I sit in the waiting room as the tributes are called one by one to be assessed.  
“Josephine Rolfe, district four.”  
My heart hammers as I push myself up and stroll into the room where my judges await.   
“Josephine Rolfe.” I say as I walk up to the elevated platform. The judges quickly stop talking as I ready myself. I’ve had all week to think about this and yet im shaking so fiercely im worried I might accidentally throw myself sideways.  
“District four.”  
I can feel Seneca Crane’s hard stare boring into me Trying to shake of the uneasy feeling I walk to a nearby station and pick up a long spear. I turn it over in my hands, finding the primary weight source and getting used to its smooth cast iron handle.  
I cast my gaze around the room and eventually it lands on a practice dummy.  
Now i’m concentrating, breathe in, breathe out, eyes up, feet firm… I pause for a second, swallowing my nerves… then I charge.  
I run at top speed towards the dummy, lift the spear over my head and throw it. It spins elegantly through the air making a high pitched whistling sound. Then it slams straight into the dummy’s chest, it flies back and hits a wall, the spear sticking out of its back and into the wall itself.  
“Wow” I whisper under my breath. I’m impressed with myself. With new confidence I grin broadly as I watch the judges nods of approval, they dismiss me as I skip back out and into the waiting room.  
“How did it go?” someone asks me, I turn to see Lukas standing there. He pushes his dark hair out of his eyes, despite his ravishing good looks I remember my mental note to not trust him and stare at him quizzically.  
“You talk to me now?”  
“How did it go?” he repeats, taking a step closer.  
Suddenly i’m scared of him , he’s three years older, stronger and faster than me. I turn around and speed walk out the room, trying to make as much distance between us as possible.

The days pass by, slow and drawn out. The training continues but my mind is elsewhere, the scores.  
“How do you think you did?” I ask Neive out of the blue one afternoon, we’re sitting on a stool beside the parkour area.  
“What?” she asks through pants. I watch as she wipes a bit of sweat off her brow  
“I don’t know, I stood in the middle of the dummies and swung my axe around.”  
“And…”   
“Well the judges looked impressed, how about you, what did you do?”  
“Spear throwing” I reply.  
“Cool.”  
There’s an awkward silence.  
“Well the scores are out tonight” Neive says “so I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

We sit on the couch, Carl, Jeremy, Laura, Vincenzo and I. I’ve never seen Vincenzo so nervous, I guess he really cares about our scores.  
The TV flickers to life and any hushed chatter that may have been happening before is swiftly cut off. Ceaser appears on the screen sporting his usual huge smile,  
“Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the scoring for the ninety eight annual hunger games!”  
Now i’m paying attention, Sienna is up first and for some reason I'm very anxious to see her score.  
“From district one, Jameth Harper, with a score of… ten.” I look at the district one males serious face as a ten circles around him. I silently laugh as I imagine him writhing because he didn’t get a twelve.  
“From district one, Sienna Lawson-Coffa, with a score of… eleven.”  
“Wow” Vincenzo sighs “an eleven.”  
I look to him and see envy in his eyes and I suddenly realise how badly he wants to be upgraded to district one.  
“Vincenzo -” I begin. He shushes me.  
“From district two, Samuel Jults, with a score of… six.” Ceaser looks back down at his notes and then the district two girl comes on.  
I remember at the reaping, she looked terrified as she clutched her sisters hand, now I realise why she volunteered, so there was no chance of her sister getting called.  
“From district two, Anchita Gurung, with a score of… five.”  
I feel a rush of pity for her and decide there and then to give everything it takes for her to go back home. If I don’t win these games then I want her to.  
The district three tributes come and pass with decent scores, then it’s our turn.  
“From district four, Carlos Sinjede, with a score of…” I swear the silence is longer than all the others, Ceaser looks at the screen and says.  
“Seven.”  
“That’s good Carl” Jeremy smiles, Carl looks proud and I give him a high five. Now it’s my turn.  
“From district four, Josephine Rolfe with a score of… ten!”  
I throw my hands in the air and let out a victory cry.  
“Nice one Josie!” Carl cries.  
“thanks “ I beam.  
The other tributes scores pass by, but I'm not concentrating. I just can’t stop thinking about my ten, I feel I might burst with pride.  
“From district seven.” My ears prick up and I quickly gather myself and concentrate.  
“Lukas sage, with a score of… four.”  
I laugh to myself, Lukas won’t like that.  
“From district seven, Neive Tayton, with a score of… nine.”  
“Nice one” I whisper, imagining how Neive might be reacting right now. We watch the other scores, district eight does quite well as well as the twelve female, whose name I learn is Jenny.

**Author's Note:**

> I kind of want to write one-shots with these characters so can you suggest some prompts or pairings?


End file.
